These days it’s all about reboots.No franchise is safe from the reboot treatment right now, with networks
seemingly aiming to milk fan favorites for every last drop. Still, not that
long ago it was all about another popular TV cash cow – the spinoff.
Spinoffs have been around forever, with networks using the
format to capitalize on a ratings hit. Utilizing existing characters or elements
from a popular show, spinoffs offer a new premise to entice viewers, with
varying degrees of success. Many bomb, but a small number go on to achieve
acclaim in their own right, occasionally becoming more popular than the show
that inspired them.
Take for Xena: Warrior Princess, which quickly outshone its
predecessor Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. Nevertheless, the impressive
number of spinoff flops has given the genre a bad rep. Just take a look at
Ravenswood, the Pretty Little Liars spinoff that had only a ten episode run
before it was canceled. Some spinoffs are so bad that they don’t get picked up
to begin with. On the other hand, due to issues behind the camera, some that
could have been TV gold never make it on to our screens.
These iconic TV characters were set to get
spinoffs, but never made it to air. Some are big regrets while others are
blessings in disguise
MACLAREN’S – HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER
Since How I Met Your Mother was such a huge hit, networks
executives at CBS began to toy with the idea of a spinoff. Not starring any of
the original cast, the series would have followed Greta Gerwig’s Sally, as she
tries to find love in New York City after her divorce. Like in the original
series, Sally’s gang of friends hung out at their local bar, MacLaren’s.
Meg Ryan was bought in to narrate, but despite pilot being
filmed, the show was never picked up.
The script reportedly had issues, such as awkward dialogue that
was not of the same quality as its predecessor, as well as “female Peter Pan”
Sally not being likeable enough.
CBS also supposedly asked for reshoots, which showrunners
refused to do without a series commitment, and vice versa.
DWIGHT SCHRUTE – THE OFFICE
Dwight may be beloved among The Office fans for his lack of
social skills and general ineptitude, but that wasn’t enough to win actor Rainn
Wilson a spinoff.
Back in 2013, as The Office was drawing to a close after nine
seasons, NBC began to look into potential spinoffs.Dwight was an obvious choice
due to his popularity amongst fans, with the network planning to trial a
backdoor pilot during the show’s final season.
Called “The Farm”, it introduced us to the Schrute family, who
viewers had heard plenty about but had yet to see on screen. However, NBC
dropped the spinoff before the pilot aired, whichwas a good call, considering
the episode turned out to be a disaster and was universally panned by TV
critics.
JESS MARIANO – GILMORE GIRLS
Jess was by far Rory’s most popular boyfriend on Gilmore Girls.
The season three episode “Here Comes the Son” was meant to be a pilot for a
Jess spinoff called Windward Circle, which would focus on the teen bad boy’s
relationship with his estranged father, Jimmy Mariano.
However, the WB. decided there was no room in the budget for it,
leaving Milo Ventimiglia so heartbroken he almost gave up acting to become a
mechanic. Fortunately, he didn’t, and we got to see a reformed Jess in last
year’s Gilmore Girls Revival: A Year in the Life.
LILY VAN DER WOODSEN – GOSSIP GIRL
One of the few examples of a backdoor pilot going down well, the
episode “Valley Girls” was intended to introduce Gossip Girl fans to a prequel
the CW had planned.
Starring Brittany Snow as a teenage Lily Van der Woodson (who
went by her maiden name Rhodes in the episode), the prequel would have included
Krysten Ritter as her sister Carol, and Cynthia Watros and Andrew McCarthy as
her parents.
Due to the network’s packed 2009 fall line-up, the pilot wasn’t
picked up.
Apparently, the choice to do a backdoor pilot actually put
Valley Girls at a disadvantage, with CW President of Entertainment Dawn Ostroff
saying: “it was hard for everybody to understand what the world would be like
on its own.”
KAREN WALKER – WILL & GRACE
Will & Grace just wouldn’t have been the same without
spoiled socialite Karen (Megan Mullaly). Due to her popularity with fans, NBC
considered giving the nasal-toned gold-digger her own show.
The network’s Friends spinoff, Joey, was such a flop they
decided against it.
Megan Mullally told Digital Spy: “They decided they wanted me to
host a talk show instead, which also didn’t go particularly well. Although it
wasn’t the show, it just wasn’t the right timing.”
However, Karen’s BFF Jack (Sean Hayes), wouldn’t have been
involved in the spinoff, with Mullalyl adding: “I was approached to do a
spinoff with just Karen. I don’t think Sean wanted to do [it] anyway.”
KRUSTY THE CLOWN – THE SIMPSONS
Back 1994, Krusty the Clown almost got his own live-action
spinoff, as Matt Groening thought “it would be so cool” to do a live-action
adaption of a cartoon. It would have starred Dan Castellaneta, who voices both
Krusty and Homer. Groening even wrote a pilot, but it wasn’t long before he
realised how complicated a live-action production would be.
He told Entertainment Weekly: “We had this running joke in the
script that Krusty was living in a house on stilts and there were beavers
gnawing their way through the stilts. But somebody at the network pointed out
how expensive it was to hire trained beavers- and an equally prohibitive cost
would be to get mechanical beavers- so I said, ‘If we animated this, we
wouldn’t be having this discussion.’”
When negotiations stalled, Groening decided to drop the project
and focus on Futurama instead.
PEGGY OLSON – MAD MEN
While Matthew Weiner was battling with network executives over
the budget for Mad Men’s fifth season, AMC were busy plotting a spinoff of the
popular ‘60s drama.
One idea was to give Peggy Olson, played by Elisabeth Moss, her
own show. Sandra Stern, COO at show-backers Lionsgate, said: “There was a time
we wanted a Peggy spinoff, too, and, a la Better Call Saul, a minor character
going off to L.A. Matt wasn’t comfortable committing to a spinoff.”
Sally Draper, daughter of leading man Don, was also a possible
candidate. “We talked about doing a contemporary one,” explained Sandra. “Given
the fact that [Mad Men] ends nearly 50 years ago, most of the characters would
be dead. Sally was the one character young enough that you could see her 30 or
40 years later.”
FAITH – BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
Along with Giles, Faith was another possible contender for a
spinoff series. In fact, Faith the Vampire Slayer was the first planned spinoff
after Buffy drew to a close.
Buffy still had a huge fanbase when its run ended, and reformed
slayer Faith was the obvious choice to keep the momentum going.
An antihero with an interesting back story, Faith was highly
popular with Buffy viewers. Tim Minear, who worked with Whedon on Angel, said
he imagined the spinoff as “Faith, probably on a motorcycle, crossing the
earth, trying to find her place in the world.”
So, why did it never happen? Actress Eliza Dushku, along with
the rest of the cast, were exhausted after filming Buffy’s last season. Dushku
just couldn’t see herself taking on the complex character again so soon, so she
chose to star Fox’s supernatural drama Tru Calling instead.
PHOEBE – FRIENDS
Joey may have been the one to get the (terrible) spinoff, but
we’d much rather have seen Phoebe’s antics continued on-screen.
In the proposed spinoff, Lisa Kudrow’s Phoebe would star
alongside Ross’s ex-girlfriend Charlie (played by Aisha Tyler).The title
Girlfriends was thrown around and Ross, AKA David Schwimmer, would also make
occasional appearances.
Unfortunately, the show never got past the discussion stage, but
last year rumors began circulating that Friends showrunner Marta Kauffman and
Kudrow were working on a second attempt at a spinoff. This time, Phoebe would
be divorced and still living in NYC, and it would feature cameos from other
members of the Friends cast.
THE DALEKS – DOCTOR WHO
Although Doctor Who didn’t get its first official spinoff until
K-9 And Company: A Girl’s Best Friend in 1981, a spinoff was actually proposed
much earlier.
In the 1960s, the Daleks were at the height of their popularity,
so in 1965 Dalek creator Terry Nation pitched a spinoff to the BBC. A year
later, Nation created a pilot, with the BBC’s financial backing.
The BBC gave The Destroyers pilot a budget of £42,000, which was
a high figure at the time.
However, Nation kept pushing for a full series with a budget of
£10,000 an episode, and as the costs went up the BBC backed out. Nation
attempted to lure in American networks, and for a while ABC was tempted, but
ultimately also ended up turning it down because the Doctor was a virtual
unknown in the US at the time.
TOMMY CARCETTI – THE WIRE
Nowadays, The Wire is considered one of the best crime dramas of
all time. During its original run, the show struggled to get ratings, which is
why HBO chose to pass on a proposed spinoff, despite the praise from critics.
Titled The Hall, the spinoff would have focused on Tommy
Carcetti’s (Aidan Gillen) career.
Showrunners Ed Burns and David Simon wanted the spinoff to air
after The Wire’s third season, with a more political storyline than its parent
show.
Speaking to Salon in 2012, Simon described the The Hall’s
premise as a chance to “watch Carcetti even more intimately than we were able
to portray him within the show,” and “an incredible journey through what
politics actually is.”
AUDREY HORNE – TWIN PEAKS
Once it became clear that Audrey Horne, played by SherilynnFenn,
was a fan favorite, David Lynch and Mark Frost pitched a Twin Peaks feature
film to the actress.
Fenn told AVClub that the proposed spinoff would focus on her
character moving to California. “They talked about an opening scene of her
driving along Mulholland Drive, and how she’s a little bit older,” she
explained. “Whatever it was going to be, it never ended up happening for me.”
However,
it did inspire another iconic David Lynch film, Mulholland Drive. The 2001
neo-noir mystery follows an aspiring actress (Naomi Watts) who ends up
embroiled in a criminal plot in LA, and is considered one of the director’s
best works. -Agencies
